Part Eight

  Healing once again took some time yet James Michael returned to his violent home once more. Fear gripped him whilst he wondered what could happen to him next. Still weak, he'd lie in his bed reading books for hours on end. A tutor was sent to teach him at home since he wasn't physically strong enough to go to school. Gradually he became weaker and Virginia had to take him back to the children's heart hospital in Dallas. After seeing his doctor, the decision was made for James Michael to have open heart surgery to try to open his closed heart valve and to also somehow stop his heart from leaking from the hole in it. Virginia understood there was no chance he'd live without the surgery. He was placed in a canvas flap incubator and ice cubes were pushed through a passage where a fan would melt the ice to create fresh oxygen for James Michael to breathe. His health had rapidly deteriorated and he had a fever that kept rising until he became delirious. Double pneumonia and rheumatic fever grasped him and all his hair fell out at the young age of nine. Days and nights ice cubes were melted, creating fresh oxygen as the nurses and doctors desperately tried to save his life. Perspiration poured from the nurse's forehead as she kept the ice supply going non-stop. James Michael felt his spirit leave his body as he neared death. Finally his fever broke and he quit perspiring whilst the coolness from the melted ice brought his body temperature back down. Barely able to open his eyes, he smiled at the nurse and she smiled back at him once she'd realized his fever broke. He passed out from the exhaustion he felt from his struggle to live. Waking to strange voices later that night, he'd no idea what was going on. Even though he was still a bit delirious he realized there was a circle of people he'd never seen before, praying for his life whilst they held lit candles. He passed back out until the morning when the doctor came to check on him. James Michael had been scheduled for open heart surgery this morning. After checking on him the doctor told Virginia somehow a miracle had occurred overnight. James Michael's heart valve had opened and the hole in his heart had healed overnight. The doctor immediately cancelled the surgery and could only say there was no scientific explanation he could relate and certainly a rare miracle had occurred. Two weeks after recovering, the doctor told Virginia she could take James Michael home and to give him plenty of bed rest. Tears of happiness descended Virginia's face whilst she thanked the doctor and nurses for all they'd done to help her son.